1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring harness arranging construction, in particular for a door hinge portion of a vehicle, and is particularly designed to facilitate an arrangement operation. Furthermore there is in particular prevented the entrance of water with a simple means by arranging a wiring harness more toward a passenger compartment than a support point of the hinge and more inwardly than a weatherstrip.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art door harness is arranged from a door to a body of a vehicle in a manner that permits the periodic opening and closing of the door. The prior art door harness may be connected with an instrument panel harness (hereinafter, "IP harness") in the body. Alternatively, the IP harness may be arranged from the body to the door, and may be connected with the door harness in the door. Conventionally, the door harness is arranged in the substantially same position as a support position of the door hinge along the horizontal direction, but displaced therefrom along the vertical or height direction. Thus the door harness only twists without extending or contracting as the door is opened and closed. The above twisting is taken up by the twisting of the wiring harness.
FIG. 39 shows a prior art wiring harness arranged at the support position of the hinge. More particularly, a hinge H connects a body C and a door D, and is mounted substantially in the middle of an end surface 1a of a door panel 1, as shown in FIG. 39. A door harness W/H needs to be arranged inside the door panel 1 and is taken outside the door D through a through hole 1b formed in the end surface 1a. It takes time and labor to arrange the wiring harness inside the door panel 1 and pass it through the through hole 1b.
Further, a weatherstrip 2 is mounted on the door D to prevent the entrance of water. The weatherstrip 2 is mounted more toward the passenger compartment than the hinge H. Therefore, the wiring harness W/H is located more away from the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. Accordingly, the weatherstrip 2 cannot fulfill its water preventing function at the location where the wiring harness is arranged, necessitating a water preventing construction for the wiring harness W/H. In view of this, a conventional practice has been to mount waterproof grommets on the holes formed in the body C and the door D for the arrangement of the wiring harness W/H. Thus a certain measure is taken to make the wiring harness W/H waterproof. However, such a practice is costly and cumbersome.
The above problem can be solved by arranging the wiring harness W/H more toward the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. However, in such a case, since the arrangement position of the wiring harness W/H is displaced from the support position of the hinge along the horizontal direction, the wiring harness W/H needs to be extended and contracted when the door D is opened and closed. In other words, the wiring harness to be arranged in the door hinge portion is required to have both an extendible/contractible function and a twist take-up function.
A construction in which a wiring harness is arranged more toward the passenger compartment than a weatherstrip is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8(HEI)48146. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 40 and 41, a corrugated duct 4 for covering an air conditioning duct is mounted between a side cover 3 of an instrument panel and an inner surface 1c of a door opposite to the side cover 3, and a wiring harness W/H spirally wound to have a margin length is arranged inside this duct 4.
Several problems may occur with the prior art spiral wiring harness W/H arranged inside the corrugated duct 4, as shown in FIGS. 40 and 41.
First, when the wiring harness W/H extends in the center of the corrugated duct 4, the corrugated duct 4 and the spiral wiring harness W/H are allowed to extend and contract in a normal manner. However, if a part W of the wiring harness W/H enters a recess of the corrugation of the duct 4, the duct 4 cannot contract. If the door is closed in this state, the duct 4 and the wiring harness W/H may be damaged by being jammed between the door panel and the side cover and, in a worst case, the wire may be cut.
Second the spiral wiring harness W/H is not necessarily constantly restored to its specific configuration after the extension or contraction. If the outer diameter of the wiring harness becomes larger than the inner diameter of the corrugated duct 4, the corrugated duct 4 is destroyed and cannot contract any longer.
Third, since the corrugated duct 4 is exposed to the passenger compartment, it may be deformed by an external force. In such a case, the spiral wiring harness W/H located inside may enter the recess of the duct 4, and accordingly the first problem described above is likely to occur.
Finally, when the door is opened and closed, a force to extend and contract the corrugated duct 4 is needed in addition to a door opening/closing force, disadvantageously making the door heavier for a driver or passenger to open and close it.
To overcome the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to arrange a wiring harness in a position which is more toward a passenger compartment than a support point of a hinge and preferably more inwardly than a weatherstrip, in such a manner as to have both a twist take-up function and an extendible/contractible function, to facilitate an arrangement operation and to prevent the entrance of water with a simple means.